Biopac in Pershore have found solutions to banishing the plastic bag, and Evesham Bagbusters have samples. These bags look like plastic. They feel like plastic. They hold a heavy load of shopping like plastic, and they're just as good when wet. But the big difference is that they can be put on a compost heap and will disappear in twelve weeks. There is one currently in a Bagbuster compost heap to test this out.
We have results from an earlier experiment with ordinary supermarket plastic bags. These were filled with kitchen waste, put on the compost heap, and buried under more and more kitchen and garden waste, for about four years. The contents have turned into a quarter inch of compost, but the bags are still there, the words "100% degradable" still clear to see. These bags need light to degrade, so blowing round as litter they do; disposed of responsibly they don't. And they never turn into compost, just smaller pieces of plastic.
Back to potato starch bags, the samples we have are plain white. Soon we will have some printed up with what they are and where to get them. This printing will be the only way to tell they are not plastic, because they really do look and feel the same.
So this gives another choice to shops and shoppers. And those who choose this bag will hardly notice the change.
